For the sake of completeness, I'll reference those methods at the end of the article and stick to a fairly simple method here. Some of them are rather Unix-geeky and can make a novice user nervous. To be clear, there are several technical ways to reset the administrator password on a Mac if you cannot log in. Nowadays, there is no install disc provided with OS X, and so an alternative method is necessary. If a user forgot the administrator password, perhaps the simplest way (of several) would be to use that disc to set a new administrator password and regain control of the Mac.
In the early years of OS X, the Mac operating system was sold on a DVD.
